Sport as Conditioning: Why Playing Might Be the Best Cardio You’re Not Doing

By Sam Johnson, MTI Intern

Last week, a few of us interns hit the local rec center for a pickup soccer game. One of our guys—a powerlifter who doesn’t do much traditional cardio—ran nonstop for nearly two hours. Sprinting, defending, getting beat, recovering, laughing, doing it all over again. He pushed himself harder in that game than I’ve ever seen him push during an EMOM or an interval workout.

And he loved it.

It reminded me of something I’ve seen again and again—not just with my peers, but with athletes I’ve coached: if you want people to go hard, give them something fun to do. No stopwatch. No strict work-to-rest ratio. Just play. Whether it’s racquetball, soccer, or even tag—it turns out fun might be one of the best conditioning tools we have.

Sports Deliver Real Conditioning Stimulus

This isn’t just about enjoyment or tricking people into exercising. Sports—especially fast-paced ones—generate serious physiological stress. Most field or court games involve short sprints, quick changes of direction, level changes, and reactive effort. They naturally build both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

Heart rates regularly hit 85–90% of max. Movement patterns are diverse and unpredictable. You’re sprinting, stopping, jumping, twisting, and recovering—all in the same drill. The result? You’re building work capacity, reactive speed, movement variability, and endurance in a way that structured workouts rarely match.

Play Trains the Body for Life

There’s another piece that’s just as important: sports prepare your body for the chaos of life.

If all you do is straight-line running or symmetrical training, you’ll get very efficient at that one thing—but you’ll be underprepared when life asks for something different. Slip on uneven ground? Sudden change in direction? Lifting and twisting? Most people aren’t ready for that.

Sports demand multidirectional movement, constantly. You’re sprinting forward, then cutting sideways, backpedaling, jumping, pivoting, twisting—all while trying to react to an external stimulus. That means:

• You’re loading muscles from every angle

• You’re hitting deep core stabilizers, rotators, joint control muscles

• You’re getting eccentric, concentric, and isometric work under fatigue

• You’re constantly shifting between high output and short recovery

Honestly, the soreness people get from playing pickup sports says everything. Muscles you forgot existed light up. It’s like a chaotic, plyometric version of MTI’s chassis integrity circuits—but with more force, more variability, and more reactive demand.

Adherence and Effort Go Through the Roof

When I program traditional conditioning—sleds, airdyne, tempo runs—I often have to push people to give real effort. But the second there’s a ball involved, effort becomes effortless. I’ve had athletes go through the motions in a circuit… then turn around and leave it all on the floor playing 2-on-2 soccer or a round of racquetball.

The difference is emotional engagement. In sports, it’s not about “finishing the set”—it’s about scoring, competing, winning. The goal is fun, but the result is always intensity.

Where Sports Fit—and Where They Don’t

Sports aren’t perfect. If you need to improve top-end sprint speed, timed rucks, or energy system-specific adaptations, you’ll need focused, structured training. And sports alone won’t give you the load tolerance required for military-specific tasks like casualty drags or long-duration movement under weight.

But for:

• General work capacity

• Multidirectional fitness

• Movement skill & coordination

• Core and chassis-level endurance

• Adherence and consistency

…sport delivers huge value—especially for general population and offseason athletes.

Final Thoughts

I’ll always respect structured training. It’s targeted, scalable, and precise. But most people don’t stick with it long-term unless they love it. Sports give people a reason to push, a reason to show up, and a reason to get better—without needing a stopwatch to tell them when to suffer.

If your goal is to be more prepared for life—not just your next workout—then find a way to play. The body craves variety. The heart craves challenge.